Batting Average on Balls in Play. This is a measure of the number of batted balls that safely fall in for a hit (not including home runs). The exact formula we use is (H-HR)/(AB-K-HR) This is similar to DER, but from the batter's perspective.

Defense Efficiency Ratio. The percent of times a batted ball is turned into an out by the teams’ fielders, not including home runs. The exact formula we use is (BFP-H-K-BB-HBP-0.6*E)/(BFP-HR-K-BB-HBP). This is similar to BABIP, but from the defensive team's perspective. Please note that DER for individual pitchers doesn't include errors.

Here is wht I don't understand: So is Young likely to go from .436 to the league average by years end or is he likely to go near his career average in BABIP?

Since BABIP is balls in play - wouldn't certain speed hitters have a higher BABIP then say slower power hitters since they can tend to run out ground balls with there speed that a slower player can't? Someone like a Reyes, Crawford, Ichiro. Compared to a Aramis Ramirez, Thome, Giambi

BABIP isn't .300 on average for all ball players. That's just a good benchmark. When you want to find out if a player is getting "lucky" or "unlucky", you should compare his BABIP to his career BABIP. Some players are just faster or get better wood on the ball or whatever.

I'm not sure if minor league stats can be compared to major league ones for BABIP, but I think it would be a reasonable comparisson.

Nerfherders wrote:Doubles and triples factor into this as well. For the most part, a double or triple has no chance to be fielded. Players who hit the ball hard to the alleys or down the lines will have their BABIP higher than those who hit fly balls or ground balls. I've never really watched Young play much but based on his numbers - .450+ SLG without alot of HR - I would say he is that type of player.

Not really true. A "double" could also be an "F7" if the left fielder is shading over in the right direction or a "single" if its hit to someone with a really strong arm. There's nothing inherent to a hit being a 2B or 3B that makes them different from a single.

The only consistent rule with BABIP is that players who hit more line drives have higher BABIPs. So you are right that players who hit the ball hard generally have better BABIPs than those who hit a lot of grounders and fly balls. But that's really the only statistically significant factor that has been found (IIRC). I wish I had a link to a site that had information on line drive rate or a study that demonstrated this result, but I don't remember where I read that stuff.

From what I've read, BABIP is much more applicable to pitchers than hitters. The basic idea is that pitcher's don't have much control over what happens once the ball is hit. This is why high strikeout pitchers are more desirable.

On the other hand, hitters do seem to control what happens when the ball is put in play. Hitters' BABIP has a much higher correllation from one season to the next than pitchers' BABIP.

What this means in the example of Michael Young, from a previous post, is that you can expect Young to regress to his established levels, but not all the way down to .300, just because .300 is league average.

But for a pitcher who is giving up a .400 BABIP, you can expect regression toward the .300 level.

Roger Angell: I was talking with Bob Gibson and I said: 'Are you always this competitive?' He said: 'Oh, I think so. I got a three-year old daughter, and I've played about 500 games of tic-tac-toe with her and she hasn't beat me yet.'

I would guess that Kent's extremely low BABIP in 2006 is an outlier, especially considering he is hitting line drives at a higher rate than in '04 and '05 and his GB% is right in line with the other two years. He should improve.

Not that this is surprising news for anyone, but Mench is headed for a fall. The fact that he has yet to walk in 69 plate appearances is also a big warning sign.

Roger Angell: I was talking with Bob Gibson and I said: 'Are you always this competitive?' He said: 'Oh, I think so. I got a three-year old daughter, and I've played about 500 games of tic-tac-toe with her and she hasn't beat me yet.'

good stuff guys -- even taking your views of stats this one step further than the 'standard' numbers, you give yourself that much of an advantage over a good number of fantasy managers. this is definitely a good stat to track, particularly when looking at hot/cold starts

also it seems to me that a pitchers BABIP would be affected a decent amount by his defense and with luck playing a miniscule part, while a batters BABIP would be in large part due to the hitter himself with some luck thrown in